So I just unboxed my MX49. First “real” keyboard. Up until now I’ve been laughably using my laptop, a midi controller keyboard (with a keychain M-Audio interface), and the SE version of pro-tools that came with it… TO PLAY GIGS! Coupled with a Casiotone 301 that was made a year before I was born (literally saved from a dumpster)… my rig was a convoluted joke. The Casiotone and the Laptop both got plugged in to a small DJ mixer, and my only out was a 1/4” headphone jack… which the sound-guys just loved…

laughable…

Anyway, I’m trying to look like a real musician here, and I’ve got my first question; Is there a superior method of “plugging in”? I’m talking in terms of signal quality, is there one method that actually sounds better? Somebody once told me that RCA cables were actually better at carrying a signal, but I kind of don’t believe that…

Each Channel on my band’s PA has an XLR mic in, and a 1/4” line in. Two of the channels have stereo mic/line in (1/4” jacks, I think, not RCA… though I believe there is also an RCA “tape in” in somewhere...). Is it worth using two instrument cables? If I go mono, what’s the beset way? is there a cable that would go from my two mono outs into one stereo in (like a backwards splitter), and if so, is that better than running two separate cables?

I know I’ll make you guys cringe if I say I’m currently going from the 1/4” mono out to the 1/4” line in, so I won’t tell you that; I’ll simply say that the Mains we practice with are NOT a stereo mix, it’s one mono main line and a monitor line than gets a different gain setting, so I don’t know how much panning matters besides making me afraid that a channel will drop out for some reason.

Oh, hey I just found a picture of the PA head that I forgot I had taken…

If nothing is plugged into the R line output, the L/MONO output will provide a mix of right and left channel. Such a mono signal can suffer from phase cancellation problems and loss of certain effects. The merits of stereo versus mono have been discussed here several times, so I won’t get further into that. Do a search if you want to read up on it.

Make sure that any input you directly connect the MX to doesn’t have phantom power turned on, since otherwise there’s a risk of damaging the MX output stages.

The MX has unbalanced line outputs, and cables with 1/4” TS phone plugs are the appropriate type to use. Very long cable runs might be subject to interference. If so, use of a DI box to convert to balanced/low-impedance could be merited, but will then require a mic (not line-level) input.

Thanks for the quick reply. I feel like maybe I was overthinking things a little.
I’ve read some of the Stereo VS Mono stuff on here. The thing I’m not clear on is if it has to stay stereo all the way down the line.
If our PA speakers are running a mono line, would I still be just as likely to experience these phase cancellation issues even if I go in to the mixer on two separate channels?

A mono mix of the two channels will have the same effect no matter where it occurs in the signal path. The MX does it right at the line output jacks when only the L/MONO output is used, but there’s no advantage to separate L and R signals if eventually they’re mixed to mono elsewhere.

I have a Mackie mixer also. There are two lines in for your synth. I would definitely use both outputs from the MX into the board. Even if your main mix is mono, if you go stereo into the board, the reverb from the board , and any other effects may sound better.

I have no scientific proof, but if you have a stereo keyboard, I would always try to use it in stereo.

I have two Yamaha keyboards plugged into my mixer, and outputs going to studio monitors. So the whole system is actually stereo. I use a digital delay in the effects loop to the board. That is plugged in stereo also.

Just to clarify…
If the right and left channels are mixed at equal levels to mono, it doesn’t matter where that full blending occurs, the result is the same. Running both channels into a mixer could be useful if the intent is to change the channel mix ratio.

20th day behind the board, and… wow.
This thing goes DEEP!
Programming the Performance for our Nine Inch Nails cover set was an exercise… 16 parts crammed into 9 midi channels full of splits, layers, and that’s just with the FREE editor! I haven’t even moved into John Melas’ territory yet!

For Example;
Midi channel one; 1 soft synth pad on the lowest octave, 1 real harsh arp-synth on the same lowest octave, 1 harpsichord (tweaked to sound industrial/synth-pop) on the middle octave, 1 wind instrument pad on the highest octaves, 1 real screechy synth sound on the same highest octaves that only triggers at high velocity

Thanks for answering my earlier Stereo/Mono question everyone, you guys helped cut through the crap. I’m rehearsing with mono simply because the band I play in is a little underground, and we most likely will be playing DIY shows where “the house PA” is just whatever POS someone happened to bring. I would rather know ahead of time that the voices I am using are going to sound ok in Mono instead of finding out about phase cancellation during a performance…
Not everyone lives in a world of pro-audio gear unfortunately…

What I’m wondering now is this;
If I hard pan everything left, can I then have only the rhythm track play on the right channel so I can plug headphones in to the right line out and the rhythm track becomes a click track? I already read that someone managed to figure out how to turn a full rhythm track into just a click (give it a one-note range on the hi hat key). I’ve never tried to use a click track in a live setting, is this how they do it?